The Minbister's Letter

I finish writing this letter on the evening of a very long and amazing day. I have been duly ordained and inducted as your new minister. I am now officially the Revd, Mrs Heather Cadoux, minister of Epsom, Ewell and Tolworth United Reformed Churches.

I need to say a very big thank you to everyone who prayed, organised, cleaned, decorated, painted, moved chairs, cooked, shopped, made, transported, stewarded, played, sang, poured tea, cleared away and lots more things beside - whatever your contribution was to the day, thank you very much. Many of my friends commented on how welcoming you had been, how beautiful the church looked, how well fed they had been and how wonderful the service had been. Thank you for all that you did it was truly wonderful to see everyone working together to make it such a fantastic afternoon.

November is a time of remembering: Guy Fawkes, Remembrance Sunday and, for Epsom, their church anniversary.

There are times when we pause, look back and remember the things of the past. Epsom will be celebrating the work, witness and devotion of many generations of men, women and children who have met to worship and show the love of Christ to the community of Epsom.

November also brings us Remembrance Sunday and I know many of you will have stories to tell of relatives who were involved in the war effort in some way or another. As men and women known to you gave of themselves so that we might be free, amazing stories of courage and sacrifice are remembered. We may never know how much their sacrifices cost them: however, there is one who does and that is God, for he was prepared to sacrifice his Son so that everyone throughout the generations might come to know Him and be free.

I guess these days November’s remembrance of Guy Fawkes and the plot to blow up King James I and Parliament have largely been forgotten, replaced by loud bangs and brightly-coloured star-bursts. My memories of 5^th November from childhood are filled with food rather than fireworks – I’m not that fond of loud bangs! The food I remember most were my mum’s potatoes in their jackets, something we only ate on “Bonfire Night”. Mum would cook the potatoes early in the day, split them in half scoop the fluffy insides into a bowl add some cheese, a rinse-out of an almost empty Marmite jar, ketchup or brown sauce bottle, and then refill the potato skins with the resulting mixture. As we went out to watch the fireworks in our back garden the potatoes went back into the oven and we ate them as we warmed up again inside afterwards with soup and hot chocolate. The thing I remember most about those potatoes is the lovely thick crunchy skins – the best bit by far. It’s a tradition that continues in the Cadoux household – though we have them more often than once a year!

We all have traditions and each of the three churches will have their own traditions of the way things are done, traditions that I would hope we can continue. I suspect, though, as we continue to grow as a pastorate, we will find new traditions as we begin to worship and work together. I’d love to know what your favourite traditions are within the your church, what happens – or even used to happen – at a specific time which, for you, makes that particular service special. Please let me know.

Love and blessings to you all

Heather